The invention relates generally to the use of organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) for area illumination. More particularly, the invention relates to an area illumination source having a modular array of OLED panels.
For many lighting applications, it is desirable to have extended area illumination sources. In such cases, for OLEDs to be effective alternatives to conventional illumination sources, large panel OLEDs are required. With currently available OLED panels, in order to illuminate an area the size of a typical room, approximately four square feet of light-emitting area is needed. Although, it may theoretically be possible to increase the size of an OLED panel to facilitate area illumination using a single OLED panel, a defect anywhere in a large panel may necessitate scrapping the entire panel. Also, such large panel OLEDs are not easily fabricated.
Prior approaches for OLED area illumination sources include non-modular arrays of OLEDs and physically modular, but electrically non-modular arrays of OLEDs. Neither approach enhances the quality of light output at the level of the array, rather improvements occur at the level of the light-emitting panel.
It would be highly desirable to provide an area illumination source comprising a plurality of OLED panels configured in a physically modular fashion and in which the light output of each of the individual OLED panels could be controlled independently.